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SALAMANDRA SYMMETRICA.— flar/on. 



Plate XL 



Characters. Head, body and tail reddish-brown; throat and abdomen orange 

 colour; a row of deep red spots on each side of the abdomen symmetrically 

 arranged; tail longer than the body, small and compressed; skin rough. 



Stnontmes. Salamandra symmetrica, HarL, Jour. Acad. Nat. Scien. Phil., vol. v. p. 158. 

 Salamandra stellio. Say, Amer. Jour, of Arts and Scien., vol. i. p. 264. 



Description. The head is short, the snout rather pointed; the nostrils are 

 anterior. The eyes are small, but beautiful; the pupil black, the iris flame colour; 

 the neck is about the size of the head. The body is cylindrical, slightly compressed 

 at the sides; and the whole animal is covered with a rough cuticle. 



The anterior extremities are small and delicate, terminating in four slender 

 fingers; the posterior have twice the bulk of the anterior, and terminate in five 

 short flexible toes. The tail is thick at the root, but soon becomes flattened, 

 small, and terminates in a point. 



Colour. The whole superior surface of the head, neck, body and tail, as well 

 as the anterior and posterior extremities, is reddish-brown; the inferior surface of 

 the throat and abdomen is reddish-orange, with black dots; the inferior surface of 

 the tail is the same as the superior, but with a glow of orange. 



Dimensions. Length of head and neck to anterior extremities, 7 hnes; breadth 



